Compensation for flight time

There is a bit of debate flying around the FBO I'm flying at and the question. Is flying a company plane for free without a commercial license considered compensation if the flight time is logged? I understand how this could be done for a maintenance flight because it is incidental to the business (however I do not believe it is legal if there are available commercial pilots within the company who are available).
Thanks for your help,
Kelly

Ace Any FAA Written Test!

Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates

The best explanations in the business

Fast, efficient study.

Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!

FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.

Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.

Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.

The World's Most Trusted eLogbook

Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.

Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.

Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.

Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome
PC,
Mac,
iPhone/iPad,
and Android
aviation
apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers

Mark Kolber on Aug 26, 2013

Flight time as compensation has a long history with the FAA. It’s one of a number of no-money forms of “payment” the FAA recognizes, including barter and good will (hopes of later business).

I can’t comment on a specific situation but, in general, the question is what it the company getting in return? In whatever form, “compensation” is received in exchange for something (what lawyers like to call “quid pro quo”). Your maintenance flight is a good example of that.

0 Votes0 Votes0 Votes

The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions.
If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome
to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area.
Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome.
However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that
may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such
links nominally are relevant to the question asked.